Central Asia, Silk Road, AE bracteate of Hunnic style

Central Asian Bracteate with Crowned Bust Holding a Flower (Unique Variety)

0.35 g, 21.5 mm

This intriguing bracteate depicts a crowned bust facing, adorned with earrings and a necklace, and holding a distinct flower — a feature rarely encountered on comparable specimens. The style is unusually refined, with a smooth, rounded portrait and carefully modelled facial features. The thin flan, central bossing, and lightly irregular rim are all consistent with traditional one-sided bracteate manufacture

Bracteates of this general class are found along the Silk Road, where they served not as coins but as ornamental pendants, amulets, or personal prestige items. They were commonly pierced or suspended and sometimes buried with their owners. Their prototypes often derive from Byzantine solidi, though Sasanian and Hunnic drachms also provided artistic models. This example, however, incorporates distinctly Central Asian and Indian artistic elements

The crowned figure — front-facing, bejewelled, and holding a flower—strongly suggests an Indo-Buddhist or Mahayana context. Such figures may represent one of the many bodhisattvas, revered as compassionate spiritual intercessors. The combination of foreign regalia, soft facial modelling, and symbolic flower reinforces the theme of cross-cultural artistic borrowing, a hallmark of the Silk Road artistic milieu

The present piece is stylistically superior to most known examples and appears to represent an unpublished and possibly unique type, especially given the distinctive flower attribute

Material: copper/bronze bracteate

Date: 6th–8th century

Region: Central Asia / Silk Road 

Condition: as struck, with characteristic thin flan and small ragged edge. Obverse impression sharp for the type; reverse shows typical negative die impression

References:

Z-369872 (this item)

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